Hinged Dragon Scales

thingiverse

I created this cloak as a cosplay gift for my friend after seeing the incredible dragon scales printed on tulle by ShoreyDesigns. The amazing design inspired me to find a way to make a wearable item with scales. My initial idea was to create a fully 3D-printed set of scales directly onto fabric, but I encountered two major issues: first, I couldn't print the scales flat without supports and struggled to remove them from the fabric; second, my small printer limited me to printing only 4x4-inch designs. This led to a series of redesigns that eventually resulted in a two-part print. The first part consisted of hinge bases printed directly onto fabric, while the second part was the hinged scale. I plan to revisit this design once I get a dual-extruder printer and attempt to print it all at once as a single hinge using soluble filament for supports. Despite the challenges and the substantial amount of manual labor involved, I'm quite pleased with the outcome.